Celebrating Everyday

          I had an Education professor in college, who used to begin every class asking "What are we celebrating today?" His reasoning was quite simple, whenever you turn on the news or pick up a paper, all you read about is tragedy and scandal, you rarely read/hear any good news. With all the negativity swirling throughout the media, we need to take time out of our daily lives and find something, anything to celebrate. In the beginning of the semester, there was usually a small period of awkward silence, followed by people mentioning family members' birthdays and anniversaries, but the sharing pretty much ended there. As the semester went on, people were more excited to share, and classmates began celebrating one another, and my professor would have to ask some of us to save our celebrations for the next class. I have learned many things in that class, but the one thing that stuck with me the most was celebrating everyday. This idea of celebrating the little things in life, has really helped to prepare me for my career of teaching children with Autism. Working with the students that I have, I have learned to embrace the little victories and celebrate them as if my student won the Nobel Prize.  Last year, I had a student, whom I affectionately nicknamed monster. Monster had just turned 5 in August, he was extremely active, always trying to run, and loved to play in water. He required a sensory diet, in which he would go to the PT/OT room twice a day to jump on the trampoline, climb the stairs, etc in order to help him release his excess energy so he would no longer try and run out of the room, as well as address his sensory needs, so he would stop biting us. When school first started, he could not complete a 3 piece in-set puzzle (he preferred eating them), or even sit for two minutes to complete a task. By his IEP meeting in March, he was completing multiple tasks in one sitting, and was able to complete a 12 piece in-set puzzle (he also drastically cut down on putting non-edibles in his mouth). When his mother came in to my room for the meeting she saw him sitting down doing a puzzle and she was astounded. She could not believe he was sitting, let alone actually doing a puzzle. If a stranger had walked into my room in March, and saw my monster working, they would just assume that he was low, however, if they had seen where he was back in September, and how far he had progressed since then, they would appreciate all he had done. It is vital when working with children with special needs not to grieve over what they can't or probably won't do, but to celebrate their potential as well as what they can do and how far they have come. Obsessing over what a child cannot do, is not helping them in any way, shape or form. Instead we need to find their strengths and use them to help our students reach their full potential. Celebrate the little things in life, and your life will be much fuller.